First look at the Zrythm Digital Audio Workstation Alpha Symphony

Zrythm is an open source digital audio workstation that will one day compete with commercial tools like Bitwig Studio and Tracktion Waveform.

- HARTMUT NOACK

Linux offers many options for producing music – some commercial and some open source. The open-source side has made lots of progress over the past few years, but the all-free studio still has some gaps. For instance, when a music maker wishes to work with loops for music production, the most viable solutions, such as Tracktion Waveform and Bitwig Studio, are still proprietary. The Zrythm [1] project by Alexandros Theodotou looks to close this gap with free software (Figure 1).

Zrythm is a free Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) that is brand still in the development stage, but you can download it right now to try it out.

Strong Start

Alexandros Theodotou had already been working on the LV2 plugin system for some time when he decided to build a freely licensed DAW that would meet his needs. He is specifically interested in electronic dance music (EDM). To succeed with EDM, a DAW must be able to handle MIDI sequences alongside live vocals. In addition, Alexandros wanted comprehensive options for manipulating and looping prerecorded or DIY samples.

The use of effects as musical instruments is also popular in EDM: Samples and entire mixes are processed with intensive filters with settings that change dynamically over the course of the composition. To achieve these effects, a DAW needs to offer a wide range of options for automating these parameters.

Theodotou’s commitment to the project is easy to see from his website: He provides short but succinct clips presenting the central functions and answering the most frequently asked questions [2].

Installation